London, 3 May 1873 

Dear Sorge, 

Have received your letter of the 9th and that of the General 
Council of the 11th. 

1. Serraillier. What Dereure says is utter nonsense. The priest 
story amounts only to this: Pottier, a delegate of the Commune in 
the 2nd arrondissement, to which Serraillier was assigned, hired out 
the churches to the priests (le dit délégué loue la boutique nommé 
Eglise, etc. etc. au nommé ... pour y exercer le métier de cure* was the 
formula) and Pottier collected all the money and used it for 
Commune and arrondissement business and credited it to the 
Commune. Serraillier never had a sou of it in his hands. Le 
Moussu, who rises to the word ‘priest’ like a hungry fish to the 
bait, actually intended to have Pottier and Serraillier arrested for 
this, because, as he expressed it, ceci était un commerce immoral.” 
When it comes to bad jokes I am not sure who has produced the 
best one, Le Moussu or Pottier and Serraillier. But to base serious 
accusations on such childish grounds is worse than childish. 
However, the Frenchmen of today are children. What the 
demonstration of the 22 is supposed to be, I do not know; I 
suppose it was the attempted resignation of the minority. The row 
between majority and minority in the Commune is still going on 
and for everyone with a Blanquist taint it is still an offence even 
today, and a capital offence moreover, to have belonged to the 
minority. All this is ancient history for us here; we have heard 
every conceivable variation on that tune until we are sick of it and 
would not give a brass farthing for the entire story. 

2. Arbeiter-Zeitung—it must indeed be said that the uncouthness 
of its style could not be surpassed. However, that is American— 
the entire German-American press writes like that. For the present 
neither Marx nor myself have a single spare moment to write 
regular reports; I am up to my eyes in work for the Congress 

a the aforenamed delegate lets the premises, known as the church, etc., etc., to 
the person named .., for the purpose of carrying out the trade of priest - > it was 
unethical commerce 

which is to be tabled in French* and Marx is immersed in his 
French translation.“ 

3. The Viennese. We know no more than has appeared 
publicly, since neither Oberwinder nor Scheu has written to us 
direct.“ However, we have our suspicions about Scheu. 1. He is 
in touch with Vaillant and 2. there are signs that like his friend 
and predecessor, Neumayr, who has since gone mad, he is in 
contact with Bakunin. The echo of the latter’s resounding phrases 
can be detected in Scheu's articles and speeches, and you will 
remember how his brother” disappeared from The Hague™? as 
soon as the business with Bakunin came to a head. Up to now no 
serious allegations against Oberwinder have been made, at least in 
public. His collaboration on bourgeois papers took place with the 
foreknowledge and approval of the party and directly served party 
purposes. If The Times were put at my disposal tomorrow and I 
could write what I wanted and receive payment for it, I would 
accept without hesitation. Nobody objected to Eccarius doing this 
until he reversed the situation and exploited the International in 
his own financial interests and no longer wrote in its interests but 
in his own and those of The Times. And since in Austria feudalism 
has only partly been overcome, the masses are still incredibly 
stupid and conditions are still about the same as those in Germany 
before 1848, we naturally do not take it amiss that Oberwinder 
does not immediately demand the moon with the maximum of 
radical hullaballoo, but instead pursues the policies we advocated 
at the end of the Communist Manifesto as being appropriate for 
Germany at the time. Here and there he may exhibit an excess of 
petty-bourgeois caution, but in the first place even that has not 
been proved and in the second, it is no cause for such a 
tremendous hue and cry. Moreover, Oberwinder is no Austrian 
and so could be deported at any time. But, as I have said, we do 
not know the details and so reserve our judgment. 

4. Admission requirements.“— Even assuming that formally you 
are in the right to make all these demands on the individual 
sections (which is, however, very much open to doubt), up to now 
no Federal Council has ever imposed these bureaucratically precise 
conditions, and had it imposed them, they would never have been 
fulfilled. What a great mistake it was to make such requirements 
even in France is demonstrated by the article in No. 49 of the 
Neuer Social-Demokrat,*° which I am sending you today. I 

a This refers to work on the pamphlet The Alliance of Socialist Democracy and the 
International Working Men’s Association. - > Heinrich Scheu - ¢ See this volume, 
pp. 483-84. 

informed Hepner* straightaway and, having made precise en- 
quiries yesterday about Dentraygues and Heddeghem, I have 
despatched the necessary statement to the Volksstaat.” 

5. WE EXPECT MORE NEWS ABOUT FRANCE BEFORE TAKING ANY STEPS. I do not 
see that there are any steps you could possibly take. All our 
sections have been uncovered. Heddeghem was a spy as early as 
The Hague. Dentraygues is not, but for personal reasons and 
from weakness, he denounced some individuals who had previous- 
ly beaten him up. A member who wanted to obtain some money 
for the party had given his watch to Dentraygues, asking him to 
pawn it. Dentraygues’ wife did so and later refused to redeem it or 
even to hand over the pawn-ricxer. This caused a scandal. A few 
people—mainly bourgeois—got together, gave Dentraygues a 
thrashing and then denounced him to the public prosecutor, at 
whose urgings they confessed that the money had been intended for the 
use of the International!!! This was the real beginning of the whole 
business—but since Heddeghem had already informed the police 
in Paris of all this, it could come as a surprise only to the Toulouse 
police at most. These then are the fellows that Dentraygues 
denounced, and there was no one else. How the police found out 
about other things you will see from the Volksstaat.’ At all events, 
at the present time the organisation in France is in pieces and will 
take some time to recover since all communications have broken 
down. Larroque is in Spain, in San Sebastian. His address: 
Monsieur Latraque, Calle de la Aduana, No. 21—he is living 
there under that name. For goodness’ sake do not send any new 
letters of authority to France. Larroque has been given 3 years in 
contumaciam.< 

6. Sramps.°**I hardly ever see Le Moussu, I have got Marx to 
give him a good kick, but still no answer. It is impossible to do any 
business with these Frenchmen without wasting whole weeks at a 
time chasing after them, and I cannot do that. 

7. Venue for the Congress.”*—-I hope you have only asked the 
Swiss for their advice as we did with the Dutch last year. In 
Switzerland there is only one possible place and that is Geneva. 
There we have the mass of workers behind us, and also a hall 
belonging to the International, the Temple Unique, from which we 
can simply throw the gentlemen from the Alliance’? out when 
they present themselves. Apart from Geneva, only Zurich would 
be possible; but there we have hardly more than the few German 
workers and not even all of these (vide the Felleisen) and your 

a F. Engels, ‘On the Articles in the Neuer Social-Demokrat (From a Letter to 
A. Hepner)’. - > F. Engels, ‘The International and the Neuer’. - © in his absence 

enquiry might even result in the proposal from various sides that 
the Congress should be held at the centrally situated town of 
Olten—the chief railway junction in Switzerland, in which case we 
should really be in the soup. The Alliancists are doing everything 
in their power to turn up at the Congress in force, whereas on our 
side everyone is going to sleep. No French delegates can come 
since the collapse. The Germans, although they have their own 
quarrel with the Lassalleans, were very disheartened by the Hague 
Congress, where they expected nothing but fraternity and 
harmony in contrast to their own squabbles, and have become 
apathetic. Moreover, the party authorities of the Social-Democratic 
Workers’ Party consist at the moment of nothing but dyed-in-the- 
wool Lassalleans (Yorck & Co.) who are insisting that both the 
Party and its paper should be forced into the straitjacket of a 
Lassalleanism of the most superficial sort. The struggle continues; 
the Lassalleans wish to take advantage of the time in which 
Liebknecht and Bebel are in gaol” so as to get their own way. 
Little Hepner is putting up vigorous resistance, but he has been as 
good as forced off the board of the Volksstaat and anyway has 
been deported from Leipzig.™' The victory of these fellows would 
be synonymous with the loss of the Party for us—for the moment 
at least. I have written Liebknecht a very determined letter to this 
effect** and am still awaiting a reply—From Denmark nothing 
has been seen or heard. My long-held suspicion that the 
Lassalleans of the Neuer Social-Demokrat have thrown everything 
into confusion there through their supporters in North Schleswig 
and have induced people to withdraw from the International,’ is 
daily confirmed by the Neuer Soctal-Demokrat, which is much better 
informed about events in Copenhagen than the Volksstaat— From 
England only a few delegates can come and it is very doubtful 
whether the Spaniards will send one, so it is to be expected that 
the Congress will be very poorly attended and that the Bakuninists 
will have more people there than us, The Genevans themselves are 
doing nothing, the Egalité seems to be defunct, so that even there 
no great support appears likely—merely the consciousness that 
there we shall be sitting in our own house and among people who 
know Bakunin and his gang and can throw them out if need be. 
So Geneva is the only place possible, and to secure a victory for us, 
the only necessary condition remaining— though it 1s an absolutely 
indispensable one—is that, in accordance with the resolution of 
26 January, the General Council should now announce the 
following resignations: 

a See this volume, p. 466. 

1. The Belgian Federation, which has declared that it has 
nothing to do with the General Council and which has repudiated 
the Hague resolutions. 

2. That part of the Spanish Federation which was represented 
in Cérdoba and which contravened the Rules by declaring the 
payment of dues to the General Council to be optional, and which 
has also repudiated the Hague resolutions. 

3. The English sections and individuals represented at the 
would-be London congress of 26 January, who have likewise 
repudiated the Hague resolutions.*” 

4. The Jura Federation which, at the congress they are due to 
hold shortly,°” will undoubtedly give us adequate grounds to 
extend the resolution on suspension. 

Lastly, it could be announced that the so-called Italian Federa- 
tion which was represented at the so-called congress of Bologna *” 
(instead of Mirandola), is not a member of the International at all 
since it has never satisfied even a single one of the conditions laid 
down by the Rules.* 

Once this resolution has been published and the General 
Council has set up a committee in Geneva to make preparations 
for the Congress and to scrutinise the mandates in advance, a 
committee consisting e.g. of Becker,* Perret, Duval and Utin, if he 
is there, the mass surge forward of the Bakuninists will have been 
forestalled. As soon as the General Council has issued instructions 
to the committees that these people cannot be given recognition as 
delegates until they have been granted admission by the majority 
of the genuine and acknowledged delegates of the International, 
all will be well. Even if they were in the majority, they would be 
innocuous; they could go elsewhere and hold their own congress, 
but without having brought their majority to bear vis-a-vis 
ourselves. And that is all we can ask for. 

Cordial regards from Marx too. 

Your 
F. E.